Finally going to get to shoot my new rifle

[charlesb]

Several weeks ago, I took delivery on a new rifle that I had ordered from the Savage custom shop. It took seven weeks for them to assemble the gun and ship it, so I've been waiting for some time already.

Ever since then, it's been either rain or 25 mph wind, every day without fail.

- But the forecast says the wind will be only 10-15 mph the day after tomorrow!

That's about as calm as it gets here ( I live 20 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico ) so I am looking forward to seeing how the new gun shoots in the relative calm.

I'm not an expert at rifle shooting and don't know how to dope the wind. To see what a rifle will do, I just have to wait for a calm day.

Friday the wind will be blowing from the targets directly toward the shooting benches, at 10-15 mph.

The rifle is a stainless Savage short action with a hinged floorplate in .243 Winchester with a 24" barrel and a laminated thumbhole stock.

Click the image to see it full-sized.



If the weather cooperates, I'll post the first few groups I fire here, later.

[Mr. Nail]

Sorry charlesb, I misread your previous post thinking you said this was the .17cal., when you said it would be a good companion for your .17cal.. How far are you gonna set your target for the .243?

[Yleefox]

Charlesb

Congrats on the new rifle. I like Savage rifles and I think they are a bargin. Now, as far as the wind is concerned; if you're planning on hunting with that rifle, go ahead and go shoot it regardless of how hard the wind is blowing or from which direction. Do this, will help you learn how the wind is going to effect your shooting when you're in the field and the wind is blowing. Sooner or later, you will have a very calm day and you can try for the very small group.

Just my .02

Yleefox

[charlesb]

I appreciate the comments, guys.

I'll be shooting at 50, then 100 yards. They bore-sighted it at the hardware store when they installed the scope and mounts... That should get it on the paper at 50yds.

I'll bring the gun vice with me. After I fire the first shot, I'll put the rifle in the vice and point the crosshairs on the bullet hole, wherever it is. Then with it firmly held in the vice, I'll adjust the scope and move the crosshairs to where I want it to shoot at 50yd, just above the bullseye. In theory, this should get it sighted at 50yd with one shot. - I'll fire another round at 50yd to be sure, then move over to the 100yd target.

The gun vice is only necessary for the scope adjustment... After the adjustment I'll go back to the sandbags for shooting, and the gun vise will go back to the trunk of the car to keep it out of the way.

I'll be cooling and cleaning the barrel between each shot at first, so it will be slow going. The barrel break-in regime I'm following calls for cleaning between each shot for the first ten shots, then between every five shots for a while, then finally I can just clean it every ten or twenty rounds thereafter.

Almost all rounds fired through this rifle will be off of the bench. - Personally I am a big-bore enthusiast, but I wanted something good for family shooting outings, accurate and light recoiling off of the bench that could still reasonably be used for a deer, hog or varmint hunt should the occasion arise. Originally it was going to be in .250 Savage, but in the end I opted for .243 for easy ammo availability, even though it probably kicks a bit more than the .250 Savage would.

If recoil is still an issue with this rifle, I'll send it off to Magna-Port. - But hopefully that will not be necessary. Magna-Porting did wonders for my Browning A-bolt SS in .300 Win mag, and it had no effect upon accuracy or even the scope adjustment!

Everybody in the family likes to shoot, but nobody besides myself likes to shoot any of the big-bore stuff. Right now the only ceterfire I have that the wife and kids like to shoot is a collectible Swedish Mauser I am hanging onto, but I feel like mounting a scope or receiver sight on the old Mauser would be a travesty and that's what led me to have this rifle made up.

At this location the .17HMR is good for 1/4" groups at 50yd, but at 100yd it is not unusual to see 4" horizontal stringing on account of the wind. I'll probably use the 17 to try to learn to dope the wind with, as the results are so easy to see with it... It's reasonably cheap to shoot, too! That is an important factor as I am a slow learner and will pop off quite a few rounds trying to get it worked out.

[Mr. Nail]

The wind won't effect that .243 under 200yds. The ballistics are alot diffferent than the.17. If you'll go to .243 ballistics , click on .243 winchester at the top, youll find the ballistic table for this caliberYou can use this table for any ammo for that gun cuase different ammo's gonna do different things as you know. charlesb, this is the truest ballistic table I've found and trust me, I've found em all. They already allowing for your line of sight too, so theres no math involved.

[Tbag]

Don't waste your money on the magna porting, you won't need it plus if it's done say bye bye to any warranty. That said porting also increases the surrounding noise level considerably to the point some may not like it. The .243 is a great round and yours is likely to be a tack driver.

[Mr. Nail]

Gotta agree w/ Tbag on the magna porting.

[charlesb]

My take on Magna-Porting is that it is useless for low pressure rounds like 45-70 for example, because it requires a certain amount of pressure for the gasses escaping the ports to really do you any good.

On my Browning A-bolt in .300 Win mag, it reduced recoil to 30-06 level and stopped bruising my shoulder when I fired it off of the bench. The rifle would put 3 Federal premium 180 grain loads into 1/2" at 100yds from a cold barrel before I sent it off to Magna-Port - and afterward too. It does pretty good for a sporter. I bought it for a mountain hunt that fell through, and it's too much gun for 100yd white-tails so it has never taken any game so far.

The .300 Win mag runs a fair amount of pressure, which explains why the Magna-Porting made a significant difference in the recoil level there. I doubt that it will be needed for the 243, but that's the wife and kid's call since I am not particularly sensitive to recoil. I doubt if it will kick any more than the 9-pound Swedish 6.5x55 though and will be surprised if they complain.

The laminated stock and 24" barrel adds a bit of weight to the Savage in .243... I haven't weighed it but I can tell that it's a bit heavier than the average sporter. I bet it turns out to be a cream-puff.

The noise level with porting is not an issue with me, as I very seldom have other shooters nearby. I either shoot here on the farm, or early in the mornings on weekdays when the gun club is almost always deserted. My issue there is that I do not like to be around strangers as they handle firearms, so I look for ways to avoid that situation.

I'm not really concerned about the warranty, that's not an issue with me either.

I got spoiled to having the range to myself back when I was a gunsmith. Sometimes I had to test-fire the guns I worked on, and I found out back then that if you join a gun club and show up early on a weekday, it's very rare to encounter another shooter on the range. It eventually developed into a habit, as the morning air is usually cool and still, perfect for shooting in any case.

By the time it starts warming up at 10:00 or so, I'm outa there! Here in deep south Texas that is a serious consideration as we get nine months of summer and three months of fall here, with no real winter or spring. - It's almost always warm here, and it's not unusual to have to run the AC and have tomato plants out in the yard on Christmas day.

[Mr. Nail]

I tell ya. .243 is a good gun. I got a 7mm mag. and a .270. The 7mm is a year old and I haven't shot any deer w/ it either cuase I just prefer my .270 kinda like what your talking about w/ your 300. My .270 was passed from my granddad to my dad to me and we've all killed deer w/ it. It was manufactured in 03/1953 and I prefer it over my new rifle. If I found a .243 exactally like it I would buy it in a heartbeat. Its a Remington 760,not one of the basketweeve crap but the good predated ones the military put out. Heres a pic.

[Tbag]

Yep the .243 is a great round, it was my cousins favorite before he passed. Inherently accurate to boot. Still say the porting may detract if others are to be using it as the concussion is an eye opener for new shooters.

[perazzi]

I'd skip the porting for something like a .243 also.

[Hakaman]

Wow, that's a beauty! It is a little more flashy then
my savage, but I love mine as well.
It's a .243 WIN 9.25" twist, 26" SS fluted barrel, 4 rd box mag.
Haka

[charlesb]

The porting isn't necessary at all. - The gun hardly has any recoil to speak of.

It shoots accurately enough, but there was a trigger problem that I had to work on. The factory had set it so light that the gun didn't always cock when I closed the bolt on a live round. The problem never showed up while dry-firing it, only when there was a cartridge being loaded. I adjusted the trigger to be a bit heavier and that seemed to fix the problem. I won't know for sure though until I get a chance to fire it again.

The strangest thing was that the bore-sighting the guy at the hardware store did while mounting the scope put it exactly in the center of the bull at 50 yards. I fired two rounds at 50yds thinking I would have to adjust it, but when I looked I had a single oblong hole in the center of the bull.

Not having to do a lot of scope adjustment was nice, and made up for some of the aggravation I encountered with the trigger.

At 100 yards I got 1" and 1 1/4" groups. I think that was more my fault than the gun's though as I was pretty tired and did not concentrate as I should have.

At any rate, now I have the worst part of the barrel break-in behind me. Next time I will be able to do more shooting, and less cleaning.

When I showed up at the range there was about a dozen cars parked there, but it turned out to be a group of cops who all hung out on the pistol range, popping off at 15 yrd targets. I still ended up with the rifle range to myself until a fellow with a really beautiful benchrest gun showed up.

So I had company today, but it was all good company.

[charlesb]

I tell ya. .243 is a good gun. I got a 7mm mag. and a .270. The 7mm is a year old and I haven't shot any deer w/ it either cuase I just prefer my .270 kinda like what your talking about w/ your 300. My .270 was passed from my granddad to my dad to me and we've all killed deer w/ it. It was manufactured in 03/1953 and I prefer it over my new rifle. If I found a .243 exactally like it I would buy it in a heartbeat. Its a Remington 760,not one of the basketweeve crap but the good predated ones the military put out.

I love the way the 760's look and handle but I have never owned one - yet.

I'll note here that I never had one show up in the shop for repair either. Apparently they are pretty reliable!

[charlesb]

Wow, that's a beauty! It is a little more flashy then
my savage, but I love mine as well.
It's a .243 WIN 9.25" twist, 26" SS fluted barrel, 4 rd box mag.
Haka

I dunno... Yours looks very pretty with the fluted barrel and the bipod. I bet it is a tack-driver, and would be a lot of fun to shoot.

I believe my sporter has the same twist. It must be the standard 6mm twist for Savage.